Customer Reviews

Rival CZF600 Cool Zone Digital Deep Fryer, Stainless Steel

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Over the last 25 tears a lot of companys have made some amusing deep fryers. I've tried many of them. Not enough cooking room, poor grease temp. control, total pain to clean(and keep clean)my old ones are made of plastic and you just can't get rid of the grease on the outside or around the rim . Well you know what I mean. We purchased this unit recently from Target and gave it a real good shake down. I'm an experienced fry man from food services in school to resturant work, and know how to handle a deep fryer, be it pressure fryers for huge batches of chicken, to a counter top presto fry baby,and everything in between. I've never been happier with a counter top than I am with this unit. It is big enough to suit a small family, breaks down easily for cleaning (stainless steel cleans easy with just plain window clearer, in a dishwasher, or a sink with just plain soap and water) and grease storage, is a lot easier than with other units the oil pan lift out easily, just pour through a funnel(lined with cheese cloth to clean out scraps) mine is in the cupboard temp. control is a dream. My 2 old fryers are in the trash.

If you're serious about good fried food, this is the one to buy.
If you're a not a fry cook, and only know counter tops, go easy at first. Try small batches, and play a little bit with it to get used to the difference. "Viva la difference".
Thank you Rival.

1. People with issues with the unit not working may want to check the white plastic switch on the heating element control unit. For some reason the designers of the fryer didn't create it so that the control unit would sit flush against the body. This simple design flaw renders the fryer useless since the white switch will never depress fully and remain on as intended. Solution: A couple zip ties or something similar to tightly wrap around the unit to make sure the switch is fully depressed. Sure, it's unsightly, but the thing frys like a champ when it's working properly. I've had the thing goin for 2 hours before without any signs of wear or "overheating" like some other users posted.
2. People complaining about needing more precise temp controls don't really know too much about frying. There really isn't any reason you HAVE to fry your crab cakes at EXACTLY 352.41932 degrees. 340 will do. I actually prefer 375(due to the temp drop when the cold food hits the hot oil.) just fry to desired color. most of the time it'll be done, but if it isnt, finish it in the oven to the desired doneness. Simple. You'd probably never use 265 or 300 unless you're making homemade french fries and doing your initial blanch. frying anything else at that low of a temp, and you're asking for limp, soggy, greasy food. And 400 degrees? That's way too hot for most foods. At that temp, you're really breaking down the oil and you'll have to toss it sooner than if you would have fried at 375. Burnt oil makes food taste bitter and disgusting anyway. I can't really think of much that requires that high of a temp other than rice stick noodles or something, but most foods from french fries to fish sticks, chicken wings, taquitos, fresh tortilla chips, egg rolls, etc. are all perfect when fried at 375 degrees.
3. Go ahead and store your oil in it. I've had the thing for almost 2 years with oil in it the whole time except for a few moments in between cleaning and refilling with fresh oil. Maybe the manual doesn't recommend it, I'm not really sure, I threw it away the day I got it. But who cares, those writers are just trying to cover their butts. Unless you plan on going a really long time between fryings, there's no use to transferring it into a separate container. It's oil, not sulfuric acid. Just cover the oil reservoir with plastic wrap if you're concerned about stuff getting in your oil. I personally don't even go that far. Heck, I leave the thing outside for weeks at a time and it STILL frys like a champ.

being a professional chef, this fryer meets all my needs and gets 4 stars due to the design flaw only. otherwise this would have gotten a 5.
chef tip #54: Thanks to the fast food industry, most people actually prefer their food fried in slightly rancid oil. Yum. Keep frying in that old oil, folks.

This is a great fryer! I use it at least 4 or 5 times a week.. sometimes more. Someone said that the level of oil was really low.. well, it is. But when you place food into the basket and then into the oil, the oil rises.
Yes, you do get an oil smell in your house after using it, but you get that with every fryer.
We love the stainless steel look of this fryer and everything about it! We have had this for about a year and it still looks new even though we use it so much!!! If you are looking for a fryer, this is definately the one to get!

Let me start out by saying this fryer does what you want a fryer to do and does it well. It heats up very quickly and frys the food quickly too. French fries taste like restaurant style fries. It also has two features I wanted, but didn't have on my old fryer, a temperature control and a removable oil well for cleaning. Unfortunately I didn't know that you HAVE to store the oil in a separate container and clean this unit EVERYTIME you use it, unless you use a fryer several times a week and can leave it sitting on your counter. The heating element is directly in the oil, so I can't imagine it would last too long if you left it in the oil all the time. Also the basket has to sit in the oil if you want the lid down, with the bulky handle sticky out. I also didn't have a gallon jug sitting around to store the MINIMUM amount of oil it takes, so it is now in two containers waiting for the next time I fry food.

If you do a lot of frying and have someplace to keep this, it is an excellent fryer. If you are only an occasional fryer, stick with one of the smaller ones that lets you store the oil in it for the next use.

This deep fryer has a removable pot, which makes it easy to clean;its 3 litre capacity is perfect for a family of 2-3 and you don't waste too much oil. I have been searching a good deep fryer for a long time, and as soon as I saw this one in Target store, I knew this is the one. I had other deep fryers before and the designs are so stupid, which makes it so difficult to clean. For this one,its design is just the way I want it to be and cannot get any better.

I've read through the reviews and noticed a couple were upset because of "frying odor". I don't care how many filters you will use, you can't get rid of a frying odor. This is a very good fryer that is very easy to clean. It is durable and pleasant to use.I would recommend to anyone who is looking to purchase it.

I received this fryer as a gift. It does perform very well - frozen fish, french fries, deep fried oreos came out great. It also cleans up very easily, thanks to the removable element and fry bucket.

The only caveat: the "digital" temperature control is rather more digital than expected. I expected to have control of temperature setting in 5 or 10 degree increments, but was surprised to discover that the only allowed temperatures on the heater unit were 265F, 300F, 340F, and 375F - leading to some consternation when two foods I was cooking recommended temperatures of 350F and 400F respectively. (340F and 375F worked tolerably but may have rendered the food more greasy.)

I've contacted the manufacturer about this, as their online manual suggests that the temperature control should be finer. I'll return to re-edit this with what I hear from them.

Edit 1: Email exchanged with customer service confirms that the maximum temperature is in fact 375F. They didn't mention the only-4-temperature-settings thing.

Edit 2: Never heard back from them further about there only being 4 temperature settings - so all I can report is, my unit really only has 4 temperature settings, which I guess is what they intended. (Haven't used the unit in a while either.)

This deep fryer was the first electric one I've used, and it did a very good job. What I liked: The fryer assembled easily; it heats extremely fast, both at start-up and between batches; it produced consistent results start to finish; the oil holder is made of heavy-guage stainless steel; and --the basket, oil container, and lid all went into the dishwasher. I was prepared for a drippy, messy job, so I was very pleased to find that it was really simple to use and clean.

I ordered this unit expecting it to be some behemoth based upon a few of the reviews here. I thought I would straighten out the size question. It is a quite reasonable size. It fits easily in my cabinet which is a standard size kitchen cabinet with 1 shelf. Also, it has been said a few times that it needs a huge amount of oil. I measured it. If I fill halfway between the min and max lines, it uses exactly 10 cups of oil. Not too bad. 12 cups would probably fill it to max. it's definitely less than a gallon.
I will let you know how it works when I try it.
Ok, I used it last night. It worked great. I made some fried chicken. The first batch wasn't too good, because 375 was too high for chicken, and because putting the chicken in the basket first and lowering it into the oil resulted in a chicken / basket assembly. I had to use a skewer to get the stuck batter and skin out of the holes. After lowering the heat to 340, and putting the basket in the oil first, and lowering the chicken in by hand, it came out great. Also, 10 minutes is good, not 20 min. like the recipe says. I'll report any reliability problems if they arise. :-)

I brought this Rival deep fryer based upon the reviews and the brand name. For me, the Pros are: fast to heat up(dial lights up when on and green light comes on when it is ready)-no beep like on the stove timer, easy to clean the housing, cooked so fast that the chicken was almost too dry, the price wasn't bad, and finally has large capacity. Now, the cons are: took up much counter space (handle sticks far out), required a gallon of oil to fill to the min. level, but the basket fill-line level was marked very low compared to the entire basket, my husband complained of very pungent greasy odor when entering the house(the odor filter was supposed to I thought contain most of cooking odor), I couldn't not view the food even after following the direction to drop oil on the inside window(so I had to lift the top each time to look to see if it was done) and lastly I had to really scrub to get the basket clean to send it back after using it once. Overall, did a good job but required too much space and oil. I went back to the chicken fryer. Cheaper; requires less space and oil.